A component based platform for the development of hybrid games

This dissertation contributes a development and runtime platform to facilitate the realization of pervasive computing applications in the domain of hybrid games. The developed platform consists of several physical and graphical user interfaces that effectively link properties from the real and the virtual world. These user interfaces include sentient game boards, gesture based interaction devices, smart dice cups, and other spatial or associative tangible interfaces. The respective software platform dynamically couples and coordinates interfaces and interaction devices. In contrast to most existing approaches, it supports consistency alignments across virtual and physical domains and is highly adaptive, allowing for physical reconfiguration during runtime. Game rules and mechanics are modeled independently of the concrete interaction devices and are likewise reconfigurable during runtime. Several proof-of-concept prototypes demonstrate that the development of hybrid gaming applications is greatly simplified with the platform presented in this dissertation. In order to prove the validity and goals of the platform, three formal evaluations with end-users were conducted, a formative one at the beginning of the requirements analysis and two summative ones after the deployment of final prototype applications.